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Biggles "On the Spot"
Biggles "On the Spot" is a short story which was first published in The Modern Boy's Book of Adventure Stories in 1936 by Amalgamated Press. This is one of the "uncollected" stories. In was not gathered and republished in any anthology in Johns' lifetime. The story was only gathered and published in Biggles Air Ace in 1999. Synopsis Biggles strafes a German airfield and kills a popular commanding officer. Now every pilot in that unit is sworn to avenge his death. Plot (may contain spoilers - click on expand to read) Major Mullen comes into the 266 Squadron mess with a news report from Wolff's, a German press agency. It seemed that Biggles had, just a few days ago, strafed the German aerodrome at Savy. In the process, he had hit and killed Hauptmann von Kleiner, the commander of the local unit. Von Kleiner was apparently highly popular with his men and now all of them had sworn to take revenge and they knew who to find because Biggles' machine had a cowling which had been painted light blue. This was propaganda but Headquarters apparently took it seriously enough and wants Mullen to send Biggles on indefinate home leave. Biggles is angry about this to the point of being insubordinate but the argument is cut short when Albatros fighters from von Kleiner's circus arrive to attack. Biggles sprints out amidst the bullets and bombs and with the help of Smyth, starts his machine up and takes off hastily. He manages to catch and shoot down an Albatros making one last bombing run and is too late to catch the others who are already on their way back to their own lines. The damage to 266 is heavy. Smyth has lost two of his mechanics, and a few pilots have also been killed or seriously wounded. That night, the squadron is again attacked by night bombers. The next morning Biggles walks to the flight line intending to take off for Savy. To his surprise, he finds the other Camels of the squadron all drawn up and ready, and all with cowlings painted light blue. Mahoney convinces Biggles to think soberly. It is obvious what Kleiner's circus is doing. Their attack on 266 was simply to provoke him. And now Biggles is about to walk into their trap. No doubt the Albatrosses at Savy would be ready and waiting when he showed up. The rest of the squadron is not going to let Biggles get into this alone. Biggles agrees and they plan their mission carefully. Four of them, Biggles, Algy, Carter and Hobbs would do the actual strafing. Mahoney and Blythe would take care of any Albatrosses which managed to get airborne while the rest would provide top cover. The raid on Savy proceeds smooth and inflicts severe damage. But the trap is bigger than Biggles expected. He sees a large group of Fokker Triplanes approaching just when he and probably the rest of his squadron mates are out of ammunitions. Fortunately Wilks arrives with his squadron of S.E.5s and drive the Fokkers away. Back at 266, General Handsford and Colonel Raymond arrive. They want to talk to Mullen and Biggles about his posting to Home Establishment in view of the threat from von Kleiner's circus. However Biggles tells them what they had done that morning and is confident the threat is over. The General is delighted and agrees to drop the idea of the posting. Biggles thanks Mahoney for the successful raid and remarks that it is a fortunate happenstance that Wilks turned up when he did. That was no coincidence, Mahoney tells him. He anticipated that the worst could happen and asked Wilks to come along. Characters *Biggles *Algy Lacey *Major Mullen *Captain Mahoney *Captain MacLaren *Wat Tyler *Lyle *Flight Sergeant Smyth - the usually laconic Flight Sergeant gets a much larger speaking part here than in many other stories. *Carter *Hobbs *Blythe *Brigadier-General Hansford *Hauptmann von Kleiner Aircraft *Sopwith Camel *S.E.5 *Hannoverana *Albatros *Fokker Dr.I Places Visited *266 Squadron, Maranique *German airfield at Savy, also spelled Svay in the text. Mentioned Research Notes *Large numbers of 266 personnel are mentioned. *Aerial Victories: A large number of combat victories are mentioned. Not all might be awarded to Biggles but are documented here for completeness. **Blue Albatros which was strafing Maranique - Biggles 1 **Albatros which just took off from Savy. Biggles raked it from tail-skid to prop boss and almost felt sorry for the pilot - Biggles 1 **At least three Albatros on the ground at Savy. A silvery-grey one taxying for take off crashes into another. A third can't avoid them and also crashes. Biggles was firing, but so were his wingmen. *This story has some similarities to Flying Crusaders. References to the past Incongruities Chronology (see also table at Timeline of the Biggles Stories) *To be absolutely free of anachronisms, this story is best set any time from after October 1917 to about May 1918. There is no mention of the weather to help us. But Algy has arrived, Raymond is already a Colonel (hence after Biggles Flies East). The Fokker Triplane has entered service (any time after October 1917 but before May 1918 when they were replaced by the Fokker D.VII).Ward Powers. "What Happened to Biggles in WW1?" ''Biggles Flies Again'' Vol. 3 No. 1, June 2009. Publication History *''The Modern Boy's Book of Adventure Stories'', 1936. *''Biggles Air Ace'', Norman Wright, 1999 and 2008. References Category:Uncollected stories Category:Short stories Category:Biggles characters Category:World War One era short stories